Public Speaking Lessons for Business Owners: The Keynote Curators Founder Seth Dechtman

Seth Dechtman (00:00)

If you're a business owner and you have to talk in front of your employees or within your industry, have your intentions set. So you might not necessarily need to memorize all the words, but be anchored in what is that nugget? What is the core virtue of two or three things that you want to get across? Be really clear what they are. If you're coming from that place, the words will come naturally.

Announcer (00:26)

Welcome to THRIVE, a Paychex Business Podcast. Your blueprint for navigating everything from people to policies to profits. And now your host, Gene Marks.

Gene Marks (00:38)

Hey, everybody, and welcome back to another episode of the Paychex THRIVE podcast. My name is Gene Marks. Very happy for you to be joining us this time. And I'm also happy to have my friend Seth Dechtman on this podcast. I was on his podcast a while back. Seth and I have known each other now for a couple of years. I feel like we should know each other better, Seth, obviously, I mean, we, we don't get to, I don't think we've ever met in person, have we?

Seth Dechtman (01:02)

No, we haven't. It's been purely digital and virtual.

Gene Marks (01:05)

Yeah. For all I know, you're just like an AI bot, you know, so I, we, we're going to need to do something like, you know, face to face at some point. Where in South Carolina do you, do you live?

Seth Dechtman (01:15)

I'm on Daniel Island, South Carolina.

Gene Marks (01:17)

Amazing. That's amazing. Yeah, it's a beautiful area. My son and my daughter-in-law live in Charleston, so we go to South Carolina a few times a year.

Seth Dechtman (01:25)

I'm just a few miles, a few miles from downtown Charleston.

Gene Marks (01:29)

Yeah, it's just a great area. It really is. Well, it's great to speak to you. Seth, you are the president of The Keynote Curators. This is going to be a conversation, everybody, about public speaking. Not only just the sort of public speaking business, which we can dig into a little bit, but I wanted you to come on, Seth, because you have for many, many years not only been a public speaker yourself, but also have dealt with many public speakers and keynote speakers. And I know that you've picked up a thing or two about speaking. A lot of us that run businesses, we do speak in front of audiences. Sales meetings, employee meetings, other types of meetings, and we always want to be better in speaking publicly. But before we even get into some of that advice. Tell me a little bit about the Keynote Curators. You know, how did you find it, how long you've been running it? Give me a little background.

Seth Dechtman (02:19)

Sure. Well, we're heading into October. We just... 21 years. We crossed the line on 21 years. So, we've been doing this for quite some time. I got into it, I'm a post-9/11 story. I had, you know, always been in business on my own, starting with my paper route back in elementary school, and if you can draw a through line from that, I was a teacher. I ran a lot of camps in the summers. And after 9/11, I had to really pivot, reinvent, turn a corner. And within my network, I had run into a couple people that, you know, knew about this business, and I quickly was drawn to it. I love being involved in conversations that make an impact, deliver transformation, and, you know, that's the short story.

Gene Marks (03:15)

That is great. I mean, it is. But you do some speaking yourself, correct?

Seth Dechtman (03:19)

I have. In fact, I do it in both Spanish and English. And, you know, I lived overseas for over 20 years in Latin America and Venezuela and Brazil and in Argentina. And yeah, I've done a lot myself. I primarily book keynote speakers right now.

Gene Marks (03:40)

Got it. Okay, I understand. When you were speaking, what did you speak about?

Seth Dechtman (03:44)

Communication, leadership, performance. Really, what's kind of missing. A little bit cliche, but the mindset, really, there's nothing wrong, there's nothing broken, we just might need to subtract some stuff and add some other stuff in.

Gene Marks (04:03)

Got it.

Seth Dechtman (04:03)

So that was the gist of it.

Gene Marks (04:05)

Fair enough. So you're working. Do you have a staff or is this pretty much a solo gig?

Seth Dechtman (04:10)

I do. I have five people. We are all over the world, Gene. We are a poster child for the future of work. One of my staff, my teammates, my colleagues is in Manila. One is in Asheville, North Carolina, one is in Sao Paulo, Brazil, one is in Lagos, Nigeria, and one is in Malaga, Spain.

Gene Marks (04:36)

Crazy. How do you find these people?

Seth Dechtman (04:38)

Through my network. You know, little by little, we just kind of built a team. I started my, you know, with... You met Carlos from our podcast in Brazil.

Gene Marks (04:48)

Right.

Seth Dechtman (04:48)

Started with him and just kind of built it out. And talked within my community about when I had a need and just really found some amazing people.

Gene Marks (04:59)

That's great. That is great. Tell me a little bit about your podcast. What does, you know, what do you cover? What's your niche?

Seth Dechtman (05:06)

We cover speakers and meeting professionals and the intersection or the relationship between the two. Speakers are always looking to get into the right events, get into the right conferences, right audiences, and meeting planners are trying to find them. And that's really where the connection is. But we cover, you know, Gene, you were on the podcast and you know, our conversation really was directed at small business owners and mid-sized business owners and you know, so we, that's part of our, that's part of our audience as well.

Gene Marks (05:49)

I got you. So, running this small business now for over 20 years, tell me a little bit about how the speaking business has changed.

Seth Dechtman (05:58)

It's become much more crowded. There's a lot more speakers. It's very commoditized. You know, I think with social media and AI, you can look pretty good to a buyer, to a prospect. But what's changed is that the demand on speakers has increased in the sense that it's got to be really tailored, really, dare I say customized. People want more. They want breakout sessions, they want pre-event videos, they want post-event videos, they want newsletters written for them. But I say the biggest thing is, is that there are so many more speakers out there and it just is a very crowded marketplace.

Gene Marks (06:53)

I have heard others say that speakers bureaus, agents like yourself, are like banks in the sense that when you least need a bank, that's when the bank comes, you know, knocking at your door. And many speakers that I've talked to feel the same way about speakers bureaus, you know, and agents are saying like, you know, by the time the agents are paying me attention, I've already built up a book of work and I'm already, I'm doing okay, you know, what do you say to that?

Seth Dechtman (07:27)

Well, I don't know if this is contrary or kind of counterintuitive, but my activities with the client and the buyer. So I'm a sales organization, so I'm interested in. Speakers to the point that I need to be aware of them. Gene, your office does an amazing job. They keep me up to date not only on your activity, but you have a new what's good...I just got the email today about what's up for 2026. And you know, so you keep me up to date and that's important. But the overwhelming majority of my activity is with the established clients I already have and the ones that I'm looking for. So what I say to them is, look, everybody wants to do it themselves. Everybody wants to go out and cut out the middleman. Great, go for it. It's a free world. Nobody owes you anything. Everybody wants to use ChatGPT and curate their own list. Go for it. But that one time, Gene, this might not be you, but when the speaker breaks their femur on a skiing trip two days before, and you've done it yourself, and they're in the hospital getting surgery, and they don't even have anybody to call, like another speaker colleague. That's where the insurance comes in for somebody like me. That's just one example. There's also the vetting. There's also the negotiating. I leverage relationships on behalf of my clients with the relationship I have with speakers. I could go on and on with that. So, you know, look, abundance mindset. There's thousands of meetings a day that bring in paid speakers. You know, so I'm... Does that answer your question?

Gene Marks (09:07)

Yeah, it does. It's good, and it's good stuff. There are a lot of people that are listening to this that would consider going into the speaking business. And obviously, you know, the picture gets painted is usually more hype than reality. Thinking like, yeah, you know, I'll just I'll sign up with Seth, or I'll go out and get a $25,000 speaking fee, and that'll be fantastic, you know, because I've got a lot to share. Obviously, you know, there is the real world of speaking. So, when you speak to, when you, when you have conversations with people that want to get into the business, if they want to be a speaker, give me some of your thoughts. Like, what advice do you have for them? Like, paint me a realistic picture of what they can expect.

Seth Dechtman (09:49)

Andy Warhol. Everybody's famous for 15 minutes, right? If you had 15 minutes to tell the world whatever it is that you wanted to say and you had their attention guaranteed, what would that be? That is a really hard question to answer. That a boy. You're stronger than you think. You can do it. Don't give up. Never quit. I mean, there's in myriad, I think, people, everybody has lived an astonishing life. The art is in how you tell the story. So, what comes to mind is it's crowded. We already covered that. It's saturated. It's, you know, there's a lot of trends and modes. AI, sustainability, DEI, green to gold, how to work with millennials. You name it, it's out there. Right? So what do you want to say and how do you say it? And be yourself and then go out and cut your teeth. But you have to be good. You have to be really good. It's a, it's a sacred, precious thing. Gene, you do it all the time. I'm not blowing smoke up your butt. You stand in front of people, and you look them in the eye, and you're like, look at the end of this conversation, you're going to walk away with real things that can be deployed, that are going to make an immediate difference and immediate impact. That is a big, that is a big hook to hang on and it's not easy and it takes a long way to get there. So, if people that really want to be speakers just because they had some success in an industry as a senior VP of sales or they were involved with some really cool Fortune 100 company that's a name brand and they had some project, awesome, go for it. But you got to have the really good video. You gotta have a simple website that makes it easy for buyers. You have to have a clear, crisp topic description and you have to be awesome and great to work with.

Gene Marks (11:49)

Right. Okay. We're gonna get back to being good and being a good speaker in a moment. And Seth, I know you're having, you know, you're a busy guy. You're running a business. You know, I get busy myself. I think the people that are, the people that are listening to this podcast or watching us on YouTube are also busy people. They're business owners. But you know what, how you can save time, Seth, as well as all of you guys that are watching this on YouTube or listening to this podcast, you can outsource your HR and outsource your payroll. Paychex is an industry-leading human capital management company. They can take care of payroll and HR so you can focus on what counts. See all the ways they can lend a hand at paychex.com/MeetPaychex. That's P-A-Y-C-H-E-X.com/M-E-E-T-P-A-Y-C-H-E-X the link is in the show notes. Check it out today. All right, Seth, let's get back to our conversation. Now you had mentioned earlier about being good as a speaker. So we can pivot a little bit. Now there are people that are listening or watching this conversation that might want to go in the speaking business. But then there are plenty of people that are running businesses that have to publicly speak every day. You know, I mean, this is to groups of employees, at customer meetings. Maybe they actually do appear on panels or go to industry conferences. I mean, there's an outward face that we all, that we all have to have, you know, so again, you've been doing this for a couple of decades. You speak yourself. You've been, you know, you represent many really excellent speakers as well. Give me some advice on speaking publicly. Like, like what kind of speakers are, you know, that really, you know, capture the attention of their audience to get their message through. What advice do you have?

Seth Dechtman (13:34)

Prepare. The ones that have been doing it for as long as you have and as long as I've been booking speakers, they're still doing work, they're looking in the mirror, they're videotaping themselves, they're debriefing, they get a video from an event and they're going over game film. Prepare. Know what your message is. I, my personal approach is that if you have a couple of distinctions, if you're a business owner and you have to talk in front of your employees or within your industry, have your intentions set. So, you might not necessarily need to memorize all the words, but be anchored in what is that nugget? What is the core virtue of two or three things that you want to get across? Be really clear what they are. If you're, if you're coming from that place, the words will come naturally. I think if people prepare and they over memorize, then you get stilted and you know, you look forced and constrained and you're, you lack the connection.

Gene Marks (14:38)

So I'm going to, I'm going to add to that. You know, I was in Wisconsin, this was during the summer, speaking to a construction group. And true story, I was like 10 minutes into the presentation when the staff of the hotel came running into the room. There are about 250, 300 people in the room. They said there was a tornado on the way heading towards the hotel and we all had to go down into the basement of the hotel. This was like 10 minutes into my presentation, you know. So, everybody got up and we went downstairs and we were downstairs for like an hour waiting for the storm to pass, which, you know, did not hit the hotel directly but you know, came kind of near. And during that period of time, like obviously the meeting planners, can you imagine the meeting planners were freaking out about like it's screwing up their whole schedule and turning them upside down. And you know, you talk about prepare though. You know, I said to them at that point, like, you know, it wasn't the ideal scenario, but everybody was in the basement, and I said, yeah, I can step up on this platform here and keep speaking to the group. I mean, if you want to stay on schedule, we can do this presentation down here. It's fine. Only because I knew my, my, my content really well, you know what I mean? Like I, you talk about being prepared. Like I use a PowerPoint. I'm going to get your thoughts on PowerPoints in a minute, but I use a PowerPoint. It's just like sort of a guide to kind of move things around in some humor and all of that. But in all honesty, some of the best speakers that I've seen are the ones that just naturally speak. They're just, they don't need any crutches or anything else. They just, they know their stuff so well. They're just talking and communicating to the people in front of them. Does that make sense?

Seth Dechtman (16:11)

Totally. I mean, that shows the preparation. They're so grounded. It's no different than an athlete or, you know, any, an artist, where there's just so much practice and so much training going on that it's in their DNA, it's in the, it's on the cellular level, and it's inhabited. So, a tornado comes, we move a herd of people to another space downstairs, and Gene, you can deliver. I had a speaker a year ago in San Francisco. True story. Vernice "FlyGirl" Armor. You might know her. And earthquake.

Gene Marks (16:47)

Oh, wow.

Seth Dechtman (16:47)

And we were in the basement of a very nice hotel. The chandelier definitely shook. We were in the basement, and everybody's phone buzzed. And she was in her flight suit. She had her phone in one of the many pockets. She pulled it out. Not like being over cool, but, you know, this is a combat pilot who flew helicopters in Desert Storm. So she's been through some things. She looks at it, and she says, oh, earthquake.

Gene Marks (17:19)

Oh.

Seth Dechtman (17:20)

Oh 4.9. Everybody okay? She looks back to the AV room. Are we good? We moving or not? And they were like. They said, we're staying. And so first of all, speak to what's going on.

Gene Marks (17:35)

Right, right.

Seth Dechtman (17:36)

And then safety first, clearly, in this very particularly unique situation. But she then said, we're gonna keep going. It took her one more stop to bring the room back. The room was a little squirrely. About 30 seconds after her start, restart. And she brought him back. And she literally said something like, you know what? We're trying to get this restarted. Let's everybody take a deep breath together. They all did. It was a very fun group, and it got going. But that comes from preparation. And she picked up right where she was. So, if you want to, you know, you know, it just comes, it sounds so basic, but it's preparation.

Gene Marks (18:15)

It does. And, you know, some of it is obviously practice and knowing your stuff. Other, you just, you don't have an answer other than just experience. You just got to, you got to be out there. It's the 10,000 hours thing, you know, that you just, you get to, you know, there's no other answer to that. You mentioned PowerPoints or I mentioned PowerPoints actually. Give me your thoughts on PowerPoints and using them. Like what, what do you...

Seth Dechtman (18:34)

I think it's a case-by-case basis. Generally, I'll talk to my personal aesthetic, I like them short and sweet. If there are a ton of slides, for instance, there's a great speaker, she's a curator at a museum and she talks about art and she has like 98 slides and she rips through them and she, they're not all the same all the time. And that really works. I was at an event in Salt Lake just two days ago and he had 86 slides and they really worked. Didn't read from them. The graphics were beautiful and any text that was on there was short and sweet. It was easily readable and it was... I've had some speakers send me a deck that I forward along to a client. It's been five slides. Two of them were black in between slide one, slide three and slide five. And that was a 45-minute talk. So, I think it depends if it...Here's the negative, if it becomes a crutch, if the speaker's constantly looking back, turning their head, or looking at the downstage monitor, overlooking, or using it as a crutch, then it doesn't work. So that's kind of a non-answer answer.

Gene Marks (19:44)

Great answer. It's a great answer getting up in front of a group, obviously. And I'm sure you've gotten this question before, but you know, you read the iconic surveys, you know, you know, people fear death more public speaking more than they fear death or whatever. What, what do you say to a business person that, that does need to speak publicly because that's part of their job or it's just, it's a requirement, but they are nervous about doing so or what sort of tools or tactics do you have for people to get over that nervousness?

Seth Dechtman (20:16)

Take your time. It's your time. And that first moment, let it simmer. Don't come out of the gate ripping, you know, Hussein Bolt, Usain Bolt level words per minute. Let it simmer. Let it percolate. Look them in the eye. Stand with your shoulders square, your hips square flat on your feet and you know, connect and you know, let the burn come slowly. You know, don't come out fire unless like you're, I don't know, that's like you're an MMA wrestler and you're like coming out in this huge, you know, pre-event video or something like that. And remember, people really do want you to succeed. And if they, if you make a mistake, they probably don't know it. So just be easy on yourself. And if you stand in your intentions of what you want to deliver, the ideas, the concepts, And you're committed to that, that will come through.

Gene Marks (21:26)

You know, when I speak to a group, you know, sometimes I look out in the audience and because I mean, like everybody else, and don't say, you don't either, we all suffer from imposter syndrome, you know, and we all think like, I can't believe these guys hired me to come out and speak to them. I'm looking at a bunch of suits, you know, older men and women or whatever the CEOs of companies. I'm like, Jesus. And I'm getting up and speaking in front of them. But you know what always grounds me, Seth, is it's, I always just go back to the content. You know, I'm like, listen, I'm going to go up there and for the next hour, I am going to be sharing a bunch of information that I think is really important for these people to run their businesses, you know. And sure, some of it they might already know, but I can guarantee you that some of it they don't know. And in the end, it is, it's not about me and being some kind of big entertainer or big whatever. It's, I want them to walk away with good, helpful things to help them run their businesses and therefore their lives. And that, that grounds me. You know what I mean?

Seth Dechtman (22:21)

Yeah. And that's why you get booked again. I'm not blowing smoke up your butt, but I've called in your office this year many, many times. Hey, we got one. You're not available. You're not available, you know, or he's somewhere where we can't get him back in time. So, the proof is in the pudding. It's, it's the content and then it's the preparation and it's also the confidence, confidence in yourself. But they hired you, you know. I'll just say this as well to anybody aspiring speaker out there. Don't get, don't get thrown by the person in the front row with their arms crossed, looking disinterested or cynical or resigned because it's one person in a whole room. And don't get sucked in by that teacher pet person, you know, leaning into you, and like every, you know, you're like reading Shakespearean sonnets or something. It's somewhere in the middle. It's somewhere in the middle. And don't get seduced by being admired.

Gene Marks (23:21)

Right.

Seth Dechtman (23:22)

You are just a vehicle or a vessel for ideas. You should disappear if you're the speaker, the ideas are what need to stay.

Gene Marks (23:31)

That is great. That is great. Before I let you go, and we're almost out of time here. As a, as a style advice, do you, do you think that somebody speaking to a group should have a certain type? Do you think people should be standing behind a podium? Do you think people should be walking around the room or pacing the stage or, you know, or more interactive with your group or what do you think works best when again, a CEO or business owner is speaking to a group of people?

Seth Dechtman (24:00)

I think podiums can be very limiting. You know, there might be situations, awards, you know, but I think that, so, I would eliminate aesthetically podiums. I know some speakers that have worked with actors or directors in theater and worked on blocking and moving and how to move their arms and stuff and absolutely. I mean, why not? I think you have to find that harmony of who you are as a personality, what your message is, and then, you know, in a, in a manner that corresponds to those two pieces, have them work together and how you move. Again, if you do the work, if you prepare and practice and you're clear about what your message is, I think the movements come along with it over time.

Gene Marks (24:55)

Okay, Seth, thank you. Your advice has been fantastic. I think it's not only helpful for people getting into the business, but also that just need to speak to a group. And some of your observations and things that you've learned, I think are really helpful. They're certainly helpful to me. So I want to thank you for taking the time out of your busy day to have this conversation with me. Thanks.

Seth Dechtman (25:17)

You're welcome, Gene. It was truly, truly a pleasure and an honor to be with you.

Gene Marks (25:21)

Do you have a topic or a guest that you would like to hear on THRIVE? Please let us know. Visit payx.me/ThriveTopics and send us your ideas or matters of interest. Also, if your business is looking to simplify your HR, payroll, benefits, or insurance services, see how Paychex can help. Visit the resource hub paychex.com/worx. That's W-O-R-X. Paychex can help manage those complexities while you focus on all the ways you want your business to thrive. I'm your host, Gene Marks, and thanks for joining us. Till next time, take care.

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